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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27384988">Merriweather Starkraven</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupod/pseuds/stupod'>stupod</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fantasy, Gen, NaNoWriMo 2020</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:06:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,159</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27384988</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupod/pseuds/stupod</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A young girl named Merriweather Starkraven is pulled into a world of mystery after her family moves into a new town. One that just happens to share her family name.</p><p>What is the connection? And what mysteries lie within the town's woods...?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Starkraven? The town’s called <em>Starkraven?!</em>” the young girl called out in surprise as she looked out of the window. She checked the sign again, just to make sure she hadn’t misread it, but yep, there it was, clear as day.</p><p>
  <strong>You are now entering</strong><br/>
<strong>STARKRAVEN<br/>
Please drive carefully</strong>
</p><p>“Yep!” replied the driver, the girl’s mother. “Exciting, huh? The new house is just perfect anyway, but moving to a town called Starkraven… it was just too good to pass up an opportunity like that!” She drove the car with an eager, gleeful grin on her face. The man next to her, wearing thick-rimmed square glasses, studied a map intently. In the back, the girl pulled away from the window. Next to her, a teenage boy, her older brother, scrolled absently on his phone, paying no attention to the outside world. “What do you think, David? Cool, huh?” the girl’s mother asked.</p><p>“Eh.” the boy replied with a shrug, not looking up from his phone. “I guess that’s neat.”</p><p>The girl looked over at him with an incredulous look on her face. “Neat?!” she cried. “That’s <em>our</em> name! That’s crazy, right?!”</p><p>The boy just shrugged again. “I’m sure this sort of thing happens all the time. Town names have to come from somewhere. They probably named it after one of the first settlers, or something.”</p><p>“I guess…” the girl said. “But you have to admit, Starkraven isn’t exactly a common name.” She blinked and quickly leant up to the front seats. “Hey, do you think that maybe one of our ancestors had something to do with this place?” she asked excitedly.</p><p>“I don’t know, dear. That’s a good question.” said the girl’s mother. The man in the front finally pulled his eyes away from the map. “I think we want to take a left here. Not this next one, the one coming up after that,” he said, pointing. “Sit safely, Meri.” he added, glancing at the girl through the rear-view mirror.</p><p>The girl leaned back in her seat and went back to looking out the window. It seemed the town of Starkraven was a somewhat rural one, buried in the pine trees. She hadn’t been entirely enthusiastic about the thought of living in a small rural town. She was used to the suburbs, after all. This was a completely different environment, and that was going to take some getting used to.</p><p>Frankly, she’d been a little bit worried about the thought of it all. Having to adjust to a whole new town, making new friends, learning her way around… it all seemed a bit much for a 12-year-old girl to deal with. Her thoughts came back to the name of the town.</p><p><em>Starkraven.</em> <em>Merriweather Starkraven is moving to a town named Starkraven.</em></p><p>The thought of that comforted her slightly. Almost like it had been decided by fate; like reality was telling her, <em>Don’t worry about it. This is where you belong. It’ll be fine.</em></p><p>The girl’s name was Merriweather Starkraven, although her family and friends usually called her Meri. She had long brown hair, which she usually wore down, and a slightly freckled face. She wore glasses, although she didn’t have them on right now, along with a casual light brown dress. She was a little bit short for her age, and she had a bit of a tendency to lose focus on things and get lost in her own thoughts, much like she currently was.</p><p>As she gazed absentmindedly out of the window, she was suddenly pulled away from her thoughts by a speck of blue appearing suddenly amidst the green and brown hues of the woods. She sat upright again, her mind now at attention once more, focusing her eyes. <em>What was that? </em>she thought. She didn’t see anything<em>. Must have imagined it…</em></p><p>She was just about ready to put it out of her mind and forget about it when she saw it again, getting a good look this time. A strange light blue speck, glowing in the woods, almost leaving a trail of blue behind it as it went. It was a little hard to see behind the trees, but it was definitely there, and it seemed to be almost… hopping around? She tried to focus her eyes harder, but it was too far away to see properly. She reached down into the door pocket, fumbling for her glasses. She put them on and looked back out of the window, but it was gone. She kept her eyes peeled on the woods, hoping to see it again, but the car turned on to a side road, and soon the woods were out of sight.</p><p>She looked around the car, but nobody else seemed to have noticed anything out of the ordinary. The boy next to her, David, still had his eyes peeled on his phone as usual, while in the front, her parents were too focused on navigating their way to the new house to have seen anything in the woods. She knew there’d be no point in asking, and anyway, she didn’t want her family to think that she was seeing things.</p><p><em>What was that thing?</em> she thought, leaning back once more and pulling out her book from the back pocket of the seat in front. <em>I couldn’t get a good look, but the way it was hopping around, it almost looked like a… rabbit, or a hare, or something.</em></p><p>
  <em>But rabbits don’t normally glow blue…</em>
</p>
<hr/><p>“Alright, we’re here!” the girl’s mother called out as the car pulled up outside the house. Merriweather had her eyes shut tight, because she wanted to wait until she got out of the car before taking a look at her new house for the first time. Eyes closed, she fumbled for the door handle, but soon got it open. She stepped out on to the crunch of gravel, shut the door behind her, and opened her eyes.</p><p>The house was exactly how she’d imagined it. Just the right size - not too small, but not too big either. The moving lorry parked outside provided a sense of scale of it, making it look just right. She imagined a house this size would have at least one or two secret hiding spots that she could use to her advantage.</p><p>“What do you think, Meri?” her mother asked. “I bet you can’t wait to see what your new room looks like! What about you, David?” The boy just shrugged as usual, which for him really meant that he actually quite liked the look of it too.</p><p>Merriweather ran around the size of the house to look at the back, which featured a nicely-sized garden. The grass was perfectly cut, and there was even a tree near the back she could climb. For her, though, the most interesting thing about the garden wasn’t what was in it, or even the size of it, but instead what was beyond it.</p><p>Just behind the back fence of the garden were those woods again. The woods where she’d seen that glowing thing. She stood there for a moment, staring at the tall trees rustling in the wind… almost transfixed. Something about the woods seemed to call to her in a way. Maybe it was just the thought of the glowing thing in there, fuelling her imagination.</p><p>“Meri?” her mother called out, bringing her back to attention. She looked back and saw her standing behind her, beckoning her over. “Come inside and take a look at the new house!” Merriweather ran back, running straight in the now-unlocked front door while David and her father helped the moving people unpack their things from the lorry.</p>
<hr/><p>After exploring the new house for a while, and arguing with David about who should get the bigger room (he ultimately earned it fair and square in a game of rock-paper-scissors), Merriweather decided she was bored with all the moving-in work, and decided to explore the garden instead. She headed outside, getting a proper look at it now that she had more time. From the back, the house didn’t seem to look quite as big, somehow. Or maybe it was something to do with the saw the sun cast shadows on it differently in the afternoon. Not that it really mattered. She already knew she loved the house, no matter how big or small it really turned out to be.</p><p>She walked over to the back fence, which seemed just tall enough for her to climb over, if she jumped. She jumped and pulled herself up just enough to take a better look at the woods beyond. There was a small clearing past the fence where she could see a path that at some point in the past must obviously have connected the garden to the woods. She checked, but there was no gate, or even a gap in the fence that she could slip through. She’d have to climb over.</p><p>She took another look into the woods, hoping to see if she could get another glimpse of the thing she’d seen before. <em>What was that thing, anyway?</em> she thought, pulling her glasses out of her dress pocket and donning them for a better look. She’d been thinking about it all day, wondering if there was maybe some kind of rare animal she couldn’t quite think of off the top of her head that it could have been, but nothing sprang to mind. <em>It was </em>glowing<em>, Meri, </em>she reminded herself. <em>Rabbits don’t glow. At least, not any kind I’ve ever heard of.</em></p><p>But, hey, this was a new town. Maybe Starkraven had some unique wildlife…?</p><p>The thought of it was really starting to bug her too much. She really wanted to climb over the fence and take a look in the woods for herself, but she knew she shouldn’t. <em>I can’t get lost in the woods on my first day in a new town,</em> she thought. <em>Mom and Dad think I run around too much as it is. They’d never let me out of my room again if they knew I was wandering into the woods.</em></p><p>Still, they were <em>right there</em>. She hadn’t even been in this new town for one whole day, and there was already a mystery waiting to be solved. She’d never had mysterious woods to explore right outside her house before, and it was entirely too tempting to ignore. And, after all, everyone else was busy. Mom and Dad were busy unpacking the house things. David was busy in his room doing… whatever it was he did. She never really knew for sure. He never would let her in his room.</p><p>A faint breeze blew past, chilling her slightly and rustling the trees again.</p><p>They were all busy. Surely they wouldn’t notice her going off into the woods just for a few minutes, right? The edge of a bright full moon began to peek out, just very slightly, from beyond some branches, almost seeming to beckon to her in a way. Eyes fixed on what lay beyond, she lifted a leg to climb over the fence.</p><p>“Meri?” a voice called out. She turned back to see her father looking out from the back door. “Yeah, Dad?” she replied.</p><p>“Don’t go too far out. It’s getting pretty dark out,” he said. “Kinda cold out here, too. Come inside. We’ve finished setting up your stuff in your room. It’s all good to go.”</p><p>“Okay, just a minute, Dad.” Merriweather said, jumping back down and putting her glasses back in her pocket, shivering slightly as she did. <em>Dad’s right, it is getting kinda cold. And when did it get so dark?</em> She turned to head inside, and glanced back at the woods one last time.</p><p>For a split second, as she turned, she almost thought she saw the tiniest speck of something blue peeking over the fence.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>That night, Merriweather slept well, although her dreams were plagued by recurring visions of rustling trees and dancing blue rabbits. She woke up the next morning feeling rested and eager to start her first day at her new school. She didn’t need to take the school bus; her house was close enough by that she could comfortably walk the distance. In fact, she was so well-rested and eager that she even set off extra early, taking the extra time to get a closer look at the surroundings and route.</p><p>Glasses on and backpack in tow, she set off towards her new school. Following the main road, there didn’t seem to be many secret back alleys or areas to investigate, except for a few small side paths leading towards those tantalising woods. One in particular caught Merriweather’s eyes more than the others for a few reasons, partly because it (from what she could tell in passing, at least) seemed to have been fenced off at some point, although the fencing had since collapsed, or maybe even deliberately torn down. The other point of interest to her was that it happened to be almost directly across the road from one of her favourite places: a library. The Starkraven Public Library, to be exact (although one of the letters had been spray-painted over so that the sign now spelled out an amusing and slightly rude message).</p><p>Merriweather stared at the path as she passed, imagining the things that could lay before, or what could have broken that fencing. She was so lost in her imagination that she completely forgot to pay attention to where she was going, and only just barely avoided getting hit by another girl running the other way.</p><p>“Woah! Sorry!” she cried, just barely stopping herself in time, inches from Merriweather’s face. Meri just stopped and blinked at her, not entirely knowing how to react. The girl had a slightly sporty look to her, with blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. “You alright?”</p><p>“Uh, yeah, I’m fine,” Merriweather said. “Sorry, my fault. I should have been looking where I was going.”</p><p>“Ah, it’s fine. Everyone gets distracted sometimes.” the girl said, brushing off her modest response and waving her hand. She studied Merriweather’s face for a moment with a slight frown, making her blush slightly with self-consciousness. She wanted to look down, but she forced herself to keep making eye contact with the girl. Eventually the girl said, “I don’t recognise your face. You new around here?”</p><p>“Uh, yeah, actually. We just moved here yesterday. Today’s my first day,” Merriweather said.  “Um, my name’s Merriweather. Merriweather Starkraven,” she quickly added, “But most people call me Meri.”</p><p>The girl smirked at this. “Starkraven? You’re kidding, right? Like, <em>Starkraven</em> Starkraven?”</p><p>Merriweather giggled slightly. “Yeah, I know, right? I didn’t believe it either.”</p><p>The girl stepped back and laughed, putting her hands on her hips. “Wow, that’s crazy. A girl named <em>Starkraven </em>moves into Starkraven. You couldn’t make that up. With a name like that, you’ll be the talk of the school.”</p><p>Merriweather wavered slightly at this. She wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to be “the talk of the school”, especially not on her first day. The girl must have picked up on the look on her face, because she quickly added, “Oh, don’t worry about it. Everyone’s pretty friendly here. Not really a good idea to make too many enemies in a small town, you know. My name’s Melissa, by the way. Melissa Braveheart. Guess we’ve both got kinda weird names, huh?”</p><p>Merriweather laughed, and found herself relaxing slightly.</p><p>“So, you’re new here, huh? Want me to walk you to school? I could give you the tour.” Melissa continued.</p><p>“Uh, yeah, sure, that’d be nice.”</p><p>“Cool! Just give me one second. I think I left one of my books at home. Just stay here for a minute, okay?” Melissa said, before running off again. Merriweather watched her as she went. The “sporty look” wasn’t just a feeling; the girl seemed to be a pretty natural runner, keeping a good pace and posture. Or, at least that was how it looked as best Merriweather could tell. She’d never been a particularly athletic girl. She'd always been more into less-intensive activities like reading.</p><p>Merriweather turned to look back at the path, but Melissa was back in no time at all. This time, at least, she saw her coming.</p><p>“That was quick.”</p><p>“I’m a pretty good runner,” Melissa said. “My parents think if I keep practicing, I could be competing at a national level in a few years.”</p><p>“…Wow, that’s great!” Merriweather said with amazement.</p><p>Melissa just shrugged. “It’s nothing, really. Everyone’s got something they’re really good at, you know? Guess mine’s running.” She glanced over at the path where Merriweather was still stealing looks. “You interested in those woods?”</p><p>“Uh… just a bit. Not really,” Merriweather said. “I was just wondering how that fence got broken.”</p><p>Melissa looked at the broken fence for a moment. “You know, I’m not entirely sure. Probably just got broken in a storm or something. It’s not like there’s any bears or anything in the woods. Although,” she tittered, “If you ask me, they don’t really need a fence up anyway. Most everyone here already knows to stay out of the woods.”</p><p>Merriweather’s ears perked up at this, and she turned to look at Melissa. “Why?” she asked. “I thought you said there weren’t any bears in the woods.”</p><p>“Well, I mean, I’m pretty sure there’s no bears. But there’s <em>something</em> in there. Something weird.”</p><p>“Something weird?”</p><p>“Nobody seems to know for sure what’s up with those woods, but I’ll tell you something. People disappear in there. We used to have a neighbour, you know. Old man Robbie. Now, he wasn’t scared of anything, ever. One night, he heard something, like an animal, or someone trying to break in, or something. So he went out to look with his shotgun. Ten minutes later, he runs back home, absolutely terrified. He said he saw gremlins, or goblins, or something.”</p><p>“What happened to him afterwards?” Merriweather asked, fascinated.</p><p>“Most people didn’t believe him, obviously. My parents said he must have been seeing things that weren’t there, or he got confused, or whatever. But he never went back into those woods. He died about a year ago. I always believed him, though. Both me and my little sister Serena. In fact, Serena’s why I believed him. She swears that one time she saw a-”</p><p>Melissa was interrupted by the sound of a bell ringing in the distance. She immediately pulled out her phone and checked the time.</p><p>“Oh, jeez, it’s that late already? We gotta run. Come on!” she said, grabbing Merriweather’s hand and taking off towards the school before she had a chance to say anything.</p><p>“W-Wait! What about what your sister saw?” Merriweather cried, her feet struggling to keep up with Melissa’s impressive speed.</p><p>“Oh, we can talk about that later!” she replied. “We gotta get you to school. You can’t be late on your first day! She’ll be there too. You can ask her yourself!”</p>
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